For the first time in nine seasons, the men's hockey team won its Ivy League opener, defeating Princeton 2-1 Friday at home. The team then dropped its second game of the weekend's Ivy Showcase tournament with a 4-0 loss to Dartmouth. Though both games were against Ivy foes, neither will count toward the team's Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference record.
Brown 2, Princeton 1
The Bears (1-1-0) kicked off the season with a dominant display in the first period Friday. From the time the puck dropped, it spent most of its time in the Princeton (0-2-0) zone - Bruno managed 11 shots in the first period.
"I thought we came out hard the first period and put them on their heels," said Head Coach Brenden Whittet '94. "Honestly, that was the best period of hockey I've seen Brown play since I've been here."
Forward Matt Lorito '15 highlighted the effort, slapping a shot under the arm of Princeton goaltender Mike Condon for Bruno's first goal of the season. Defender Joey de Concilys '15 put the play in motion, pushing the puck up the right side of the ice to Lorito. The forward faked a pass to Ryan Jacobson '15 before sending a shot past the goalie and into the left side of the net.
The Bruno defense did their part, limiting the Tigers to just six shots in the period.
Most of the second period was back-and-forth, with no team scoring until two tripping fouls within five seconds sent players from each squad to the penalty box. With just four minutes left, the Bears capitalized in the 4-on-4 scenario when forward Nick Lappin '16 separated from the crowd and slid his first career goal into the net, pushing the Bruno lead to 2-0.
"I had a breakaway for about half the ice, kind of a lucky break," Lappin said. "The puck came out to me, and I just faked a shot and pulled to my backhand, and that was pretty open."
A goal by Princeton's Tyler Maugeri with 3:14 left in the final period proved to be too little, too late for the Tigers, who struggled all night to generate chances against a stout Bruno defense.
"Our motto this year is we're a defense-first team," said captain and defenseman Dennis Robertson '14. "We just didn't give them any grade-A chances."
Goalie Marco DeFilippo '14 grabbed 24 saves to spearhead the defensive effort. "Marco played great. He was a backbone, and he made all the saves he needed to make," Robertson said.
Dartmouth 4, Brown 0
The Bears were unable to carry Friday night's momentum into the next day's game against Dartmouth (1-0-1).
Whittet attributed the loss to problems with the team's mentality. "I think we just did not have that mental edge - we weren't crisp mentally from the get-go. So what happens is you miss pucks, you take too long to make a pass, you miss the net with shots," Whittet said. "It's all upstairs."
Bruno battled Dartmouth to a scoreless stalemate after the first period, but the Bears were dealt a major blow when forward Garnet Hathaway '14 drew a game misconduct penalty with 1:49 left in the period. The penalty was called for a blow to the head of a Dartmouth player.
"That Hathaway penalty hurts us because he's a big kid that plays a physical game," Whittet said. "When you don't have him, you lose an element from the lineup, and we just never recovered."
The penalty also gave Dartmouth a five-minute power play lasting into the second period. On the power play, forward Eric Robinson sent a slap shot into the net to give Dartmouth a 1-0 lead.
After taking the early advantage, Dartmouth pushed the margin to 3-0 on two controversial plays. The first came late in the second period when Dartmouth's Brett Patterson nudged a rebound into the open net as DeFilippo was caught up in a mass of bodies. The open net motivated officials to review the play for interference, but the goal was upheld.
A minute into the third period, Bruno forward Jacobson drilled the top bar of the goal and the puck bounced near the goal line. No goal was awarded, and as the Bruno faithful cried foul, the puck was sent to the other end of the ice where Dartmouth's Tyler Sikura slapped it past DeFilippo for goal number three. Once again, the play was officially reviewed and upheld. An empty-net score by Jesse Beamish gave Dartmouth the cherry on top of the commanding victory.
The Bears registered 24 shots on the night, all of which were saved by rookie goalie Charles Grant.
Jacobson said it was the Bears' inability to match Dartmouth's aggressive style of defense that led to their offensive woes.
Bruno's weekend split didn't match the team's expectations going into the tournament, according to Jacobson.
"We wanted the sweep. We've gotten to the mentality before in years past that one win and one loss is okay, and it's just not anymore," he said. "Next week, we're going to look for a better result."
